When hot rolling wire-rod, the leading and trailing parts of the rod will have dimension errors and metallurgical faults as a result of uneven cooling. The end-parts of the rod are therefore cut-off and removed from the roller line. This is carried out manually at present and the work involved is manually exacting and must be carried out in a hot and demanding environment and is therefore also physically strenuous.
Several constructions have been proposed for automatically severing and removing the end-parts of hot rolled wire-rod, although none of these constructions have been found to function satisfactorily in practice. The basic problem is one of providing a construction which is able to move a severed part of the wire-rod away from the rolling line positively and with satisfactory reliability in operation.